St. Louis school principal confesses to hiring assassin to kill teacher carrying his child

A school principal has confessed to hiring a hitman to kill a teacher with whom he was having an affair after discovering she was pregnant with his child.

Cornelius Green, who was the principal of Carr Lane Visual and Performing Arts Middle School in St. Louis, Missouri, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to one count of murder-for-hire and one count of conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire.

Green pleaded guilty to orchestrating the 2016 killing of Jocelyn Peters, which was carried out by his friend Phillip Cutler. Green was married at the time, and his affair with Peters would have been exposed by the existence of the illegitimate child.

Fearing for his career and his marriage, Green paid Cutler $2,500, which was stolen from the school.

Cutler would go on to drive to Peters' apartment and shoot her with a .38 caliber firearm in the head. Prosecutors pointed out that Cutler used a potato to "muffle the sound of the shot."

The hit man was charged with murder for hire conspiracy and murder for hire but has pleaded not guilty. As for Green, who will be sentenced on June 5, he can expect to spend the better part of his life in prison.